Mask

source

mASK me

I can be anyone you want, just

mASK me

I can be naughty or nice

Sweet or nasty

Your angel or

your whore

It's really all the same

Trick

Treat me however you wish

Pretend you don't know my name

Know my shame vanishes under the mask

So mASK me.

submitted (late, sorry!) for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Sunday Mini Challenge, Masks

inspired by a glance around our local Halloween costume store in the Women's section, where every costume, it seemed, was overtly sexual and provocative

Bloom

I planted oleander along the path to my door
You plucked one
and tucked it behind your ear

You made a bouquet
of the marigolds and tulips
and tossed it into the air; it became
sunlight

In my window box, love lies bleeding
You planted snowdrops
to stanch the blood

You stood with me
beneath the willow's branches
and waited
until the rain stopped
and the sun dripped on us
like warm, sweet butter.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Kerry's Wed. Challenge, The Language of Flowers


key to flower symbolism:

oleander - warning
marigold - grief, pain
yellow tulip - hopeless love
love lies bleeding (amaranthus) - hopelessness
snowdrop - hope, consolation
willow - sadness

Two Tanka

Fall leaves red as blood
Cling to branches like pin pricks
Biding time until
Heavy, they drop to the ground
Pooling in crimson puddles.

--------------------------------------------------

The cherry blossoms
Hold spring in their clenched, pink fists
The essence of hope
Released in falling petals
Soft and shy as new love's blush.


submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Sunday Mini Challenge, My Thoughts onTanka, Pt. 2

Behind Blue Eyes

dog by scavengercat808

You peek at life through your high fence

Hide behind bared teeth and demon growl

but your eyes betray

Behind blue eyes lies the soul of a pup

who wants only to be told he's good

to feel gentle strokes upon his barrel chest

and to hear,

again and again,

that I am yours

and you are mine.

submitted for The Mag, Mag 190

October Rain

October Rain by Timothy Corbin

October rain makes colors bleed

Bleed from sky to tree to leaves

Leaves the ground in autumn shades

Shades her brown eyes when she grieves.

Grieves a friend she never knew

Knew his soul from words he wrote

Wrote his life as though a song

Song she loved from the first note.

Note how his life embraced hers

Hers far better for the time

Time she wished were ever lasting

Lasting memories, love sublime.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Sunday Mini Challenge, Loop Poetry

Redemption For Beginners

Don't come to me asking for redemption

I gave last Christmas

Hella good it did

Now I'm more careful

where I spend my forgiveness

I'd give my last dollar to a busker,

my last smoke to a truant kid

before I'd  give you a damn

You want atonement, go to a priest

or a whore

They make money listening

to lies

You can count your sins

You can count your rosary beads

You can count me gone, and

I'll count myself lucky.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Fireblossom Friday, Redemption

For the Birds

Count my feathers and judge me
Then pluck out several more
because I fall short
Don't you know that I make this home
for you?
I use scraps of myself for your comfort
I am mostly scrap
Whatever good there is in me
is in my function, not my form
I am a trifle
I can't even escape this place
where the sun is wrong-
bright but not warm-
and night comes, not gently,
but with a thunderous cloud of sudden darkness
It is a wonder
that I sing at all
but I suppose instinct
overcomes intellect
and you are easily entertained
by meaningless cheer.





submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Weds. With Peggy, Point of View and Place

The Captain

We called him Captain Morgan

for he sailed a sea of rum

We never saw him sober, but

we never saw him glum

His real name had been lost

to the high waves of history

The past he didn’t cotton to;

He was a mystery

His hair was all atangle,

had a hook for his left arm

His teeth were gone; his eyes were red

He had a certain charm

We saw him every day

and then we saw him every night

He wasn’t really rude, although

he wasn’t quite polite

The women were “fine wenches”

and the men were scallywags

He laughed and said he’d steal the gold

out of their hands and bags

He sang an old sea shanty

that was crude as it was loud

He never asked for money

for the man was far too proud

One day he said the time had come

His ship would soon set sail

We shook his hand and wished him well

through sun and rain and gale

Next morn we looked around

No Captain Morgan was in sight

And later on we learned

that he had died that very night

So let us lift our bottles

to the Captain’s final quest

He may have been a drunk old man

but, man, he was the best.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Liquor is Quicker-A Perfect Friday Prompt

Shiver

 source

Autumn sneaks in

like a wayward lover

between the sheets

Pretend that you don't notice

the change,

even as you wrap yourself in the blankets 

more tightly.

November

source

We live on borrowed time

Now we must return

to our place of birth

The Earth beckons home

her wayward children

Leaves turn to soil

Gardens turn to seed

Ponds turn solid and impenetrable

November's breath 

petrifies as surely as Medusa's gaze

Summer maidens

shed their pale blossoms,

fruit into winter queens

Below the frozen ground,

they dream of innocence

and wait for the cleansing sun.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Get Listed-Good Neighbors